J. Psychology and Mental Health Care Copy rights@ Emenike J Umesi. Auctores Publishing LLC – Volume 6(3)-158 www.auctoresonline.org ISSN: 2637-8892 Page 1 of 5 Interventions for Persons Affected by Conflicts & Insurgency: An Assessment of Psychosocial Support in Idp Camps In Nigeria Emenike J Umesi Visiting Lecturer, Global Distance Learning Institute, Abuja, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: Emenike J Umesi, Visiting Lecturer, Global Distance Learning Institute, Abuja, Nigeria. Received date: November 16, 2021; Accepted date: January 05, 2022; Published date: January 22, 2022 Citation: Emenike J Umesi (2022) Interventions for Persons Affected by Conflicts & Insurgency: An Assessment of Psychosocial Support in Idp Camps In Nigeria. Psychology and Mental Health Care, 6(3): DOI: 10.31579/2637-8892/158 Copyright: © 2022, Emenike J Umesi, This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Armed conflicts and insurrections are a precursor for mental health challenges in children, adolescents and young adults. A wide range of psychosocial approaches have been suggested for managing such challenges which result from these conflicts driven situations. This study investigated the extent to which psychosocial intervention programmes are implemented for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the camps in Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria and how these programmes are able to meet the needs of the affected persons. A qualitative research design was adopted, and three research questions were generated. Subjects are 200 respondents that are selected from a target population of 1005 displaced persons in two (2) camps in Borno state, through simple random sampling. Instruments used for data collection included questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions. The result of the study showed that several psychosocial approaches were utilized in the management of the post trauma challenges and were rendered by various professional and volunteer groups in the camp. The study concludes that effective and efficacious interventions for these conflicts driven challenges require strengthening and that these services which are available in the camps require retooling, deepening and some conscious improvement. Keywords: psychosocial, interventions, mental health, internally displaced persons, war-affected youth Introduction By January 2017, the total number of displaced persons in the world was about 40.3 million, and out of this figure, the newly displaced within their own countries by natural disasters, conflict or human rights violations at the end of December 2016, amounted to roughly 31.1 million. Sub Saharan Africa contributed 2.6m of the 6.9m figures for conflict-induced displacement. (IDMC, 2017) Nigeria as of January 2020 had a total of 2,583,000 persons internally displaced due to violence and conflict out of the world’s over 40.0 million displaced persons. This displacement comes with a lot of incidents and experiences that leave the victims or affected persons traumatized. By the peculiar nature of these incidents, families have been separated, communities have been destroyed, and basic infrastructure damaged. The basic social and economic activities in the various communities have been disrupted making the need for humanitarian action inevitable. In the last few years, displacements have occurred in various parts of the country, coming along with its trademark of trauma and other social issues that also has a lot of impact on the mental health of the affected persons. Some of the states affected by displacement in the country include Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Benue, Nasarawa, Cross River, Katsina, Ebonyi, etc. The causes of these displacements range from human induced to natural disaster incidents. The resulting effects of these incidents go a long way to affect the displaced persons in the form of post disaster trauma. In cases of this nature, a consciously planned programme of psychosocial intervention is supposed to be in place and made available to all affected persons who require such mental health related services. It is based on the above, that this study is being carried out to assess the extent to which this sensitive aspect of social work intervention programmes is made available to the affected persons and whether it has helped to effectively mitigate the post disaster trauma challenges being faced by the internally displaced persons in the camps in Maidugur. Literature Review There are a lot of studies on the psychosocial interventions for persons affected by insurgencies and conflicts. However, these studies have significant gaps that justify the need for this study. Below is the review of the related literature. Psychosocial services and internally displaced persons The exposure to life threatening events overwhelms adults, as well as infants and children and could lead to emotional distress and traumas. The manifestation of these traits could be in form of delays in development, changes in behaviour, and other severe health and psychological conditions. Stucki and Cieza (2014) explained that Open Access Literature Review Psychology and Mental Health Care Emenike J Umesi* AUCTORES Globalize your Research